An afternoon & especially evening of t'storms Thu. as a spectacular lightning show lit up the skies over Jacksonville & surrounding areas. Check out the photos below from Dan Kaminski, St. Augustine then from Rick Hall, Jacksonville Beach. The last snap shot is from our SkyCam looking north from Jax Beach at the Quality Inn & Suites from late Thu. afternoon showing a "penetrating" or "overshooting" top (small "bumps" above the rest of the clouds). This phenomenon occurs when intense updrafts in thunderstorms punch through the tropopause & above the glaciated clouds of a thunderstorm. It's an indication of an especially strong storm. Click
here for a good explainer, satellite imagery + photos which is where I grabbed the diagram below.
This is just the beginning of a stormy pattern as a weak front sets up shot just north of Jacksonville through the middle of next week. The jet stream will drop unseasonably far south pushing disturbances along the front which will ignite daily storms across the First Coast from the weekend well into next week. Strong storms seem likely with at least a few severe storms possible. Total rainfall could become very heavy in some spots.
Interesting research from NASA regarding noctilucent clouds & the theory that meteor dust helps seed the clouds -- click here for great pictures, summary & diagrams.
